Danforth Shooting: Islamophobes Continue To Push Disinformation and False Information As Truth

It has been a little over a week since the horrible tragedy in Toronto's Danforth area occurred that resulted in the murder of a young woman and a child with more than a dozen injured. Right now this is what is known:

1. Because I love you, I spent the morning reading everything known so far about the #TorontoShooting. Canadian reporters are doing a great job, but the pieces are in different news outlets. I tried to bring it all together: pic.twitter.com/Su2h54itMh

— Amarnath Amarasingam (@AmarAmarasingam) July 26, 2018

It was also stated that the shooter was born in Canada by people familiar with the family.

Other than that precious little is known about the motives of the shooter and, much like the shooting that occurred in Las Vegas, it may take months of investigative work and even then a definitive motive might not be discovered to anyone's satisfaction.

Then again, the police could always just rely on the beliefs of a 25 year old, unemployed, drifter:

I'm not going to include the screen shots of comments for these particular posts, but I'm sure the readers can guess their content easily enough based previous examples.

Suffice it to say though that very little of what Myatt wrote is actually true and what is true is wildly mischaracterized. For example, ISIS did take credit for the attack. Perhaps after an investigation it will be determined that the shooter was motivated in whole or in part by an extremist ideology, but considering that ISIS also took credit for the Las Vegas massacre it seems that Myatt is far too willing to believe a violent terrorist group that has been known to lie in recent years because it fits a narrative he had already believed and had been promoting. There's also absolutely no evidence to suggest that the shooter spent any time in Afghanistan or that he was a "trained killer" or that he was a refugee, but since they are so eager to place blame on the government for it's immigration and refugee policies, the shooter will be labeled as a refugee regardless of the truth.

In fact, truth be damned.

Steven Myatt is exhibiting a classic case of confirmation bias which certain fringe websites and partisan "news" have been keen to push for fun and profit:

Myatt isn't alone in his desire to jump to conclusions and to rely on erroneous information because it fits a narrative:

A recent Global News article noted the proliferation of false information (ie. lies) in the wake of the shooting that is being disseminated online. The article mentioned three instances where images were being spread that purport to prove the shooter was a Jihadist refugee who trained with ISIS and was allowed into the country by Trudeau (apparently via personal invitation). The problem is that none of it is true:

• A photo claiming to be the shooter is of a 17 year old named Talha Asmal who joined ISIS in 2015 and who killed himself in a suicide bombing.
• A man from the UK with the same name as the shooter who was sentenced to four years in 2016 for stalking a woman and engaging in a campaign of terror against her.
• A series of photos that purport to be the shooter but are in fact of people who look nothing like him.

All three of these examples were found in the social media sites I monitor.

Travis Patron of the Canadian (White) Nationalist Party Gets No Love In Winnipeg

ARC has written very little about Travis Patron, the white nationalist founder of the "so fringe other fringe political parties consider them fringe" Canadian Nationalist Party.

Because he is so marginal and insignificant, I've only referred to him in a single article:

• Islamophobe Infighting: Part "I've Lost Track"

Not that he hasn't been trying very hard to raise his profile. Patron has been posting on Kevin Goudreau's Facebook group and has been interviewed by fellow "white nationalist" Ronny Cameron for example. He has also engaged in cross-country speaking events, including tour of Western Canada that began earlier in the month:

The thing is, none of his speeches in any part of Canada have resulted in more than four people showing up to hear him speak. 

That's not an exaggeration either. Travis Patron quite literally can not draw many more people than would fit in a standard PolyJohn:

Patron's Western Canada tour has mostly proven to be no different:

With this in mind, Travis Patron's speaking tour stop in Winnipeg must have resulted in mixed feelings. 

On the one hand, he drew far more people to this engagement than he has for any other stop in the history of his "party's" existence.  

On the other hand though, only three of the people who attended were there because they wanted to hear Patron speak:

Yep, that's right. Travis Patron was welcomed to the city by the fine folks with Fascist Free Treaty 1 (FF1):

The Far-Right, Neo-Nazis, and Racists Running For Municipal Office.... So Let's Have Some Fun With This

By this point in the evening a lot of people who monitor the far-right in Canada have noticed that Faith Goldy has submitted forms and is running for mayor of Toronto:

it appears white nationalist YouTuber and former Rebel Media host Faith Goldy has registered to run for mayor of Toronto. pic.twitter.com/3Et1lRi508

— ishmael n. daro (@iD4RO) July 27, 2018

A woman who
-got fired from The Rebel for appearing on a Neo-Nazi podcast
-was the key player in a Quebec mosque shooting truther movement
-recently promoted a 1930s book concerning “the Jewish menace”
is running for mayor of Toronto.https://t.co/US9bxet0Ol

— VICE Canada (@vicecanada) July 27, 2018

Ms. Goldy joins the long list of far-right, neo-Nazis, and run of the mill racists who have decided to throw their hat into the political ring....

.... and she is most likely doing it for the exact reasons that others of her ilk have as well:

One quick note on Goldy. After being demonetized on patron, paypal, etc for, you know, being a white nationalist, this "mayoral run" is almost certainly not calculated but out of desperation.

— Mack Lamoureux (@MackLamoureux) July 27, 2018

Already the following have announced their respective, and ultimately futile, runs for public office:

• Perennial candidate Paulie has announced he is running for mayor of Hamilton which genuinely surprised me since I thought he was still living in Mississauga.
• Kevin "Poodle" Johnston is running for mayor of Mississauga.... though even he seems confused as he had withdrawn his candidacy for mayor of Mississauga and registered to run for Ward 9 Mississauga city councilor only to withdraw his candidacy to be a city councilor and register to run for mayor again.
• James Sears, creepy as ever, is a candidate in the Toronto mayoral race as neo-Nazi and convicted murder Chris Brosky.
• Don Andrews may take another crack at mayor so long as he's the only candidate with a last name that starts with the letter "a." If not perhaps his mini-me Bob Smith will run?

Now Faith Goldy joins this august group by running for mayor of Toronto.

These people are running not because they believe they have a chance of winning, though I suppose some might have been able to delude themselves. In general they run so that they get publicity and support, albeit from the fringes, and thus more people who might be able to make donations. And of course many of them are narcissists who just want others to pay attention to them and to take them seriously.

I would prefer not to pay attention any of them, but I also can't help but think that this offers and opportunity for us as well:

ARC has run contests in the past in which our readers have either taken an existing political poster and modified it or have created an entirely new one. All of these have focused on making fun of Paul Fromm's efforts, such as the one from his 2014 campaign for major of Mississauga.

As I was pondering Ms. Goldy's entry into municipal politics, I thought that maybe we might hold the contest once again, though expand the reach somewhat.

What I am proposing is a two part contest in which the winner will be awarded $100 for creating the most informative AND political poster mocking any one of the following candidates:

• Faith Goldy, Toronto mayor
• James Sears, Toronto mayor
• Kevin "Poodle" Johnston, Mississauga mayor
• Paul Fromm, Hamilton mayor

When you have created your poster, send it to the following email address:

arc(DOT)collective200(AT)gmail(DOT)com

From those that have been sent, I and a jury will pick the best example of each far-right candidate. I will then inform those who have made the short list. These short listed posters will be published to the blog. The deadline for this part of the contest will be September 3 to September 14.

Now this is where the contestant and ARC readers will help to determine the winner.

Each poster posted somewhere within the city or ward the candidate running in will be considered as a vote for that poster. A photo of the poster sent to the above address will constitute evidence and will be counted as a vote. The designer of the short listed poster may put up as many as he or she like and any reader can do the same. Part 2 of the contest will go from October 8 to October 19.

Rules that I expect to be followed:

• Provide facts AND funny
• Nothing illegal or promoting anything illegal
• No encouragement of violence
• Nothing sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or racist

In short, feel free to be an asshole, but use some common sense and don't be a dick. Make fun of these clowns because they deserve it and because they hate being laughed at.

Because I'm spit-balling this all as I write it I reserve the right to change dates as needed to to include other information that I didn't think of initially when setting out the rules and conditions. I might also have to speak to a lawyer to make sure that this contest is legal since part of it involves some public postering.

Stay tuned for more details.

WCAI Celebrate Apparent Hate-Motivated Assault and Threat in Toronto

On Monday July 23, a video was uploaded as a man harassed, assaulted, and threatened two families at the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal:

Today Lombray Ball, age 50, has been charged with two counts of assault and one count of threatening death:

Vice reports that Ball had been arrested in relation to a second incident after the one in the video took place and that it appears that he was targeting visible minorities.

Now most reasonable people would recognize what is seen in the video as a pretty clear cut case of criminal behavior and harassment. Then there are people like Joey Deluca and the supporters and members of the Worldwide Coalition Against Islam who think that Ball's actions were awesome:

Joey wants to buy Ball a beer which, given the circumstances, seems to be at least part of the problem.

No one should be surprised by this. Deluca and WCAI have made a point of encouraging the dehumanization of visible minorities, especially Muslims, since the hate groups inception and they have only become cruder with time:

It should be mentioned that Deluca and some of other members of the Calgary-based WCAI plan on travelling to Toronto to hold a rally in Nathan Phillips Square on August 11:

I'll be writing a more detailed article on this plan soon enough.

There Really Is Life After Hate Part III

In light of events over the past several days, I thought this would be another apropos time for some hope as well:

Deprogramming 101: Proving Fear and Narratives Wrong 

I was young when I met the individual who recruited me into the white power club. I recognize the fact that I can't blame him alone for my radicalization; I had a choice and I chose to buy into fear. 

I was the very definition of a disenfranchised youth. After enough back handed attempts to prove to me that he and his friends were my safe haven, that's when the lectures and fear mongering began taking place. 

I remember statements such as: 

• "What happened to you in the past is nothing compared to what a non-white will do to you". 
• "They (non-whites) are out to attack our people and culture". 
• "Anyone who isn't with us is against us, they're the enemy". 

I remember the adrenaline building up and at the time these statements were alluring to me because they were very narrow; I didn't need to worry about shades of grey. I already had an all or nothing mentality and these messages aligned with it. 

It didn't take very long for me to believe these things and start making false connections in my own head. It also didn't take much longer for me to have experiences where I was thrown off guard, questioning my beliefs momentarily. 

A drunken riot happened at our hangout spot one night. It was between group members where a disagreement lead to fist fighting. Myself and two others went running onto the main road covered in blood and bruises. I saw two black guys running towards us who asked if we were okay. They said they still wanted to help us even though we were decked out in hate symbols. They stayed with us until the ambulance arrived and gave us money to get a cab ride home after the hospital visit. I was stunned and didn't know what to think. With the narratives I was taught, I would have thought we would have been harmed even more by them. What happened was the literal opposite. 

I had a couple white power symbols tattooed on me. People on the streets would often ask me what they meant, but no one ever jumped me because of them. The only times I have ever been jumped or physically harmed were at the hands of the people who I thought were my friends. One such incident was having my head slammed full force against a brick wall. Of course I had to go to the hospital because of it. The doctor who helped me was mixed race and I was thrown off once again; he treated me like a human being. 

I have had brushes with the law before and I think I was let off easier then I should have been a few times. 

One officer in particular, I still remember. Regardless of what he thought, he never judged me or challenged my so called beliefs. He talked to me as an adult, even though I acted like a child. I think he could probably see the troubled kid underneath the surface, as opposed to focusing on the basket case I had become. 

When I actively removed myself from hate groups, I still had unwanted thoughts come to mind; unfortunately negative programming can last a lot longer then someone's physical involvement. I was introduced to something called rational thinking; I asked myself what evidence I had to support any of those thoughts (ie: "they're out to get us"). I never had an experience to back those claims up, and I very much doubt I ever will. What I was lucky enough to have were some guardian angels out there in the form of people who I thought were against me.

Other articles in this series include:

• Status of ARC Collective Onward
• There Really Is Life After Hate Part I
• There Really Is Life After Hate Part II

Far-Right Reaction To Tragic Shooting in Toronto Exactly As Expected

First, the most important part of this horrible tragedy is that two people, 10 year old Julianna Kozis and 18 year old Reese Fallon, were murdered and their names are the ones that should be remembered, not that of the murderer. As such I will as much as possible try to avoid using his name in this article.

When the shooting occurred, I was working on the article identifying the Montreal chapter leader of ID Canada. Initially the news that trickled in was that there were shots fired in Toronto's Danforth area. As time went on the full scope of the tragedy became apparent. Right now little is still known about the motives of the killer. A statement from his family suggests that he had struggled with mental illness since at least 2010 and was known to the police having been apprehended two times under the mental health act. A friend stated in an interview that eight years prior to the shooting the suspect had confided in his friend that he suffered depression and psychosis. Beyond this is all speculation at this point in time.

Sadly, the speculation and accusations began soon almost immediately as false news was being spread:

I feel weird sharing this fake garbage, but it's just one example of the shit that comes after mass shootings like the #TorontoShooting.

This site cites "eyewitness" reports of a "bearded" man. That adds up to "Muslim." A transparent act of #Islamophobiahttps://t.co/QqkzwjI5Ev

— Steven Zhou (@stevenzzhou) July 23, 2018

This blog has recorded many examples of the Islamophobes ARC monitors jumping to conclusions before more information is made available. I could provide the screen shots I've collected and posted elsewhere as examples, but I think a short and non-comprehensive list should suffice:

• Joking about the mass murder of young people assuming that the suspect was a Muslim only to learn that the suspect was a far-right extremist (they then simply dismissed him as crazy).
• Forest fires (including the one that devastated Fort McMurray) and prairie fires have been claimed as proof of a jihadist plot as Muslims have been accused of starting them.
• The massacre of six men at a mosque in Quebec City is still being claimed as either a false flag or having actually been carried out by Muslim extremists.
• The van attack in Toronto this past spring that left 10 dead and more than a dozen injured is still being claimed as an act of jihadist terrorism.
• There are many who suggest that Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy was an example of Islamic terrorism.

There are more examples than these on this blog. Feel free to peruse at your leisure.

I think my views concerning the rush to judgement in these cases as well as the most recent tragedy are summed up best by journalist Steven Zhou:

I wanna emphasize that this cautionary note isn't to say that the shooter isn't or can't be Muslim.

There's just not enough evidence to pin down the identity or motive of the shooter. https://t.co/9g1h4ui9XE

— Steven Zhou (@stevenzzhou) July 23, 2018

Here's the thing with fake news right after a shooting:

Baseless attribution of the shooter's motivation to whatever ideology w/o evidence actually has ~50% chance of being right.

No one will go after you if you're wrong, and it's "vindication" if ur right. #TorontoShooting

— Steven Zhou (@stevenzzhou) July 23, 2018

I've already seen two fake sources saying the shooting was done by an ISIS fanatic. With no real evidence cited.

Those who wanna believe this will pat themselves on the back if it actually turns out to be some Muslim guy. Except they never had any evidence. They just guessed.

— Steven Zhou (@stevenzzhou) July 23, 2018

It's a win-win situation essentially.

1. Ur wrong and fall silent. Lose nothing.

2. Ur right, the group you hate suffers bad PR, and the shitty fake news site you like gets vindication and a thin veneer of legitimacy.

— Steven Zhou (@stevenzzhou) July 23, 2018

Obv no one can say right now without insider info who the shooter was and why he killed ppl.

But just in case it IS a Muslim dude, I just wanna flip off those fucked up fake news blogs preemptively.

Fuck you lifeless idiots.

— Steven Zhou (@stevenzzhou) July 23, 2018

All of this was prior to learning the identity of the suspect and it holds true after learning the identity as well.

I spent much of the day scrolling through the usual profiles and groups on Facebook prior to and after the identity of the shooter was known. It was like a car accident that one couldn't look away from. The usual rage-filled comments were being posted prior to the name being released:

• Claiming that the shooter was a member of ISIS who had returned to Canada or was at least inspired by ISIS
• Blaming refugees, immigrants, and multiculturalism.
• Suggesting Trudeau and the Liberal Party had "blood on their hands" and were fully to blame (given that the shooter had been in the country since at least 2010, it's a bit of a stretch) with the more extreme demanding the execution of the prime minister and any Liberal or NDP supporter.
• Demands to end immigration, deport Muslims and "non-white" Canadians, and to close down mosques. 

I could post screen shots from any number of sources -- God knows disinformation was spreading like wildfire -- but I think a focus on a single case study should suffice:

Steven Myatt has become a bit of a nexus for spreading false information and whipping up his Islamophobic supporters into a frenzy. Examples of the subsequent comments are as follows:

Generation Identity, Alt-Right Montreal, and the Identity of "Date"

ARC has a number of individuals to thank for this article, however one provides the blog with the bulk of the material that follows. I would like to thank her/him, as well as all of those others who assisted in this work, for the invaluable contribution that made this article possible.

On January 7, ARC published an article identifying the suspected head of Generation Identity Canada. Tyler Hover had been a person ARC had been watching for years though we hadn't published much about him during that time. Of potential interest is that former "Rebel Media" personality Lauren Southern is a fan of the group in Europe:

Generation Identity Canada has since rebranded as ID Canada and has found a kindred spirit in another former "Rebel Media" personality Faith Goldy who has been promoting the hate group since the spring:

While identifying Hover has proven to be useful, the real prize has turned out to be learning the identity of the Montreal chapter of Generation Identity (now the Montreal chapter of ID Canada) leader.

ARC is actually coming a little late to the party since the head of Montreal chapter was identified by an online pseudonym in "The National Post" on May 14. Most of the article focused on how the leaking of the Discord chat logs resulted in identifying some far-right individuals from Quebec who participated in the racist Charlottesville rally last August paying particular attention to "Zeiger" (Gabriel Sohier-Chaput), Shawn Beauvais-MacDonald ("FriendlyFash"), and Vincent Bélanger-Mercure, however there was also mention of a figure that I had only been vaguely aware of:

A few days before the long drive south, one of their leaders logged onto an American alt-right forum with a request. 

“We are about 20 guys driving through the border from Canada and we obviously will not be able to bring protective gear like shields and so on through the border agents,” wrote Date, a prominent Montreal white nationalist. “If you’ve got extra ones, some of our members are interested in buying them from you over there.”

Of importance to this article though is information found later on "The National Post":

Another key Montreal player goes by the username “LateOfDies.” He first appears in the Montreal Storm chat a few weeks after its creation and remains a moderator throughout the duration of the logs. 

In late December 2017, another user describes how LateOfDies acts as the gatekeeper for the crew’s secret Facebook group, which requires in-person vetting by LateOfDies, FriendlyFash or Zeiger in order to enter. 

Unlike Zeiger, the name LateOfDies does not appear in forums outside the Discord server. There is, however, a person who uses the pseudonym “Date of Lies,” or sometimes simply “Date” who regularly appears on white supremacist podcasts and in neo-Nazi literature connected to Montreal and Quebec. 

It was Date who had asked to buy shields and gear from American users ahead of Charlottesville. Date has also appeared on podcasts with Shawn Beauvais-MacDonald — who used the alias Friendly Fash (two words, rather than one), just like in Montreal Storm. 

Date identifies himself as a leader within Generation Identity Canada in a white supremacist podcast from October 2017. That group, which recently rebranded itself as ID Canada, has posted propaganda around Concordia and McGill in the past. Date also claimed to have been involved in the “Make Canada Great Again” posters that went up around McGill shortly after Donald Trump’s election. 

In an interview with Harfang, the secret newsletter of the neo-Nazi group Fédération des Québécois de Souche, Date says that Generation Identity was formerly called Alt Right Montreal.

The connection Generation Identity and the Facebook group Alt-Right Montreal was made explicit on the Montreal Storm chat logs and includes a misspelling of Date's first name:

On a related note it seems that Students For Western Civilization is also involved with Gabriel Sohier-Chaput and those who participated in the "Montreal Storm" chats by attending physical events (referred to as TRS Pool Parties).

That's another connection to Faith Goldy:

Date is also seen here coordinating with American fascists prior to Charlottesville:

Thus far the identity of "Date" or "DateOfLies" hasn't been widely distributed, but someone who I am very grateful to has provided ARC with the identity and supporting evidence to identify who he is:

Far Right Reaction To Assault On Muslim-Canadian Father in Mississauga

It has become a bit of a sad routine on ARC that, after a horrible crime is committed, I await the reaction, excuses, and often justification from the far right groups and individuals ARC has been keeping an eye on over the years. The vicious assault of Ahmed Abu Marzouk in front of his wife and two young children is the latest example. Initially labeled as a road rage incident, the subsequent details have resulted in the police investigating the assault as a hate crime.

It didn't take long before some of the folks ARC watches to dismiss or even justify this crime:

Considering that it has been suggested that Johnston is an unreliable witness (which is really just a nice way of saying he's a chronic liar), I'm inclined to not give him the benefit of the doubt regarding his claim to have been a fraud claim investigator.

Johnston isn't the only person who is either dismissing the incident as a ploy or justifying the assault:

One of the sources disseminating these particular narratives is this fella:

 

Ron here has posted his missive in a number of other locations; comments follow each:

WCAI Turning Into Parody.... I Mean Even More So

Sometimes it is easy to forget how ridiculous and laughable the groups and individuals this blog tracks can be. This is especially true when one comes across a post in which the subject casually discusses which race (or ideology) he would like to "Holocaust":

But then he reminds you of how worthy of ridicule and mockery he really is:

Oh Joey! You're over the top rhetoric never fails to make me smile.

I suppose taking "Toronto back WCAI style with no mercy, no retreat and no surrender" means you'll be clumsily reading a cliche-filled script at a poorly attended rally in which you will make yourself look to be a buffoon? Because that's sort of what you're known for,

I mean, this is assuming that he will actually be able to raise the finances to get there in the first place:

If this wasn't funny enough, Joey claims to be training for the rally.

No, really:

He seems to genuinely think that THIS is intimidating:

My god, it's like watching a 12 year old boy using gym equipment for the first time.

You want to injure your lumbar? Because this is how you injure your lumbar!

So, when (or if) Joey and the WCAI make their way to Toronto, what burning issue will be the focus of their righteous rage?

If one of his more recent posts is any indication, breakfast menus:

The responses are so unbelievably surreal one might think that they were responding to a troll by Sacha Baron Cohen: